Interent Explorer 9 Preview To Be Released

Interent Explorer 9 Preview To Be Released

Microsoft has released what it says is the final preview of Internet Explorer 9, promising a number of performance improvements and interoperability tweaks.

The IE9 preview is the fourth to be released by Microsoft, and is aimed at developers. General users will not see another IE release candidate until the beta is published in September.

The company offered some third-party test results to support its performance gain claims, saying that WebKit.org's SunSpider rated IE9 11 times faster than IE8 thanks to its Chakra JavaScript engine.

Microsoft is also hoping to tempt the developer community with its 'write once, work anywhere' mantra, which it said answered calls for better interoperability. This has had an impact on its Acid 3 score, which Microsoft said had risen from 20 for IE8 to 95 for IE9.

The firm also said that it had worked closely with partners to improve HTML5 performance and capabilities on different hardware.

"The IE9 platform continues to push what people can do with HTML5 in the real world, especially when you pair it with hardware acceleration," Microsoft said in a statement.

The company has already confirmed that the new browser will have plug-in support for Flash.

Microsoft has posted a number of demonstration videos and applications designed to highlight the speed and performance of IE9, including a game based on Hamsterdance, and a virtual bookshelf system that links into Amazon's inventory.